Forever Gone
by EX3451
Summary: Beast Boy hasn't left his room for a week. The reason? The Titans don't know, but they have their suspicions. After Robin's, Cyborg's and Starfire's attempts all fail, it becomes Raven's job to get through to him. But is the problem really what they think it is? One-shot.


So...hi.

I know I should really update my stories, but I cover that in the A/N at the bottom, which you could probably skip if you really wanted to.

As a way of apology for my tardiness (which has a completely different meaning to what I originally thought, I mean it just sounds like an insult. 'lol, look at that idiot, doing all that tardiness and stuff!), I bring to you this one-shot! And before you just take a look and go, "Ugh, overdone and boring!" I encourage you to read through to the end.

Enjoy!

**Disclaimer: I own a few items of clothing. That's about it.**

**XxX**

"Friend Beast Boy! Please, come out of your room now!"

...Silence.

That was all that Starfire was answered with. That was all any of the Titans were ever answered with these days. They didn't understand why. No one ever would.

How could they? They had never had someone so important torn away from them, right in front of their eyes. They just couldn't see why Beast Boy was taking things so hard.

Starfire optimistically waited with bated breath, hoping that this time he would answer. Hoping that, for the first time in a week, she would hear her little green friend's voice.

Nothing.

"Friend Beast Boy?" Starfire tried again, her voice shaking slightly. "I am quite worried about you. All of our friends are. I only wish for you to talk to me, please!"

Once again, Starfire was answered with nothing but silence. Hanging her head sadly in defeat, Starfire walked slowly away from the door, throwing small glances at it over her shoulder. She had been hoping that today would be the day that he would respond.

She had been hoping that since the day that he had shut himself into that room.

**XxX**

The doors to the ops center swished open quietly, causing all of the teenagers within to halt their individual activities. Starfire walked in quietly, rubbing her moist eyes hastily with one hand. The Titans were all in the exact same places as when she had left. Cyborg was alone on the couch, playing some form of violent video game. Robin was sitting at the table, reading the day's newspaper with a cup of coffee on the table in front of him. Raven was floating, in the lotus position, in the corner of the room, staring out of one of the large windows that ran along the entire length of the wall.

Starfire sniffed quietly, catching everyone's attention. She was still standing in front of the door, hastily wiping her nose on her arm.

"What's wrong, Star?" Robin asked, throwing his newspaper down as he stood up, quickly making his way over to the crying alien.

"Friend Beast Boy did not respond! I fear he that he may never respond! I do not wish for this to happen!" Starfire burst out, yanking her arm away from her face to clasp both of her hands together.

Stepping back slightly in order to avoid being hit by any flying mucus, Robin cautiously reached out, grabbing his girlfriend by her one clean arm, carefully leading her back towards the table.

"Man, this ain't right." Cyborg sighed, watching whilst Robin handed Starfire a tissue. "B just hasn't been the same. Every time I ask him to play some Gamestation, he doesn't even acknowledge me."

Robin nodded in agreement, doing his best to wipe the snot off of Starfire's arm with a different tissue. "I know, every time I try to talk to him he just doesn't respond. It's been the same ever since he came back from that school."

"Please, friends." Starfire started, hiccuping slightly. "How are we to help Beast Boy overcome what has happened? How are we to even know whether he is in his room or not?"

"He's in there." Raven suddenly said, glancing at the Titans from the corner of her eyes. At their inquisitive looks, she merely shrugged, before closing her eyes and adding, "I can hear him crying at night."

"Right." Robin stated, suddenly straightening up. "It's been a week, we need to get him out of there."

"But how, man?" Cyborg inquired, carelessly dropping the Gamestation controller on to the couch beside him. "We've tried everything we could think of! He just ain't responding! What are we supposed to do?"

Robin scratched his chin in thought, before his eyes brightened slightly behind his mask. Turning slowly to face Raven, he spoke slowly and deliberately, making sure to enunciate each word.

"Not everything."

Catching on, Cyborg gave Robin an uneasy look, only to be waved off by the Boy Wonder. Starfire had stopped crying, opting to merely stare at Robin in confusion.

As if feeling her leader's stare, Raven cracked one eye open, turning slightly to take in the hopeful look on Robin's face.

"No." She said simply, closing her eye again.

"Please?" Robin asked, gesturing towards Cyborg and Starfire. "We've tried everything else! You're all we have left!"

"No."

"Pretty please?"

Raven sighed irritably, opening both eyes to glare at Robin.

"Robin..." Raven said slowly, trying to stop her eyebrow from twitching. "Beast Boy has made it perfectly clear that he does not wish to interact with any of us at this time. All of the negative emotions he is giving off right now are sufficient enough to give me quite a bad headache, even at this distance."

"But we're desperate!" Robin whined, throwing away the tissue that he had unknowingly been holding the entire conversation.

"I will make this perfectly clear." Raven grumbled, massaging her temples with two fingers each. "I am not going to leave here, just to try to get a response out of Beast Boy."

**XxX**

"Beast Boy! I'm not leaving here until I get a response out of you!"

Silence.

Raven growled in frustration, slamming her fist against the cold door yet again. She had been there for close to three minutes, trying to get at least some reaction out of the green boy beyond the door.

Why was she even there? ...Oh, that's right.

Puppy-dog eyes.

Damn Starfire and her adorable-ness.**  
**  
"Beast Boy! Open this door or I will!" Raven warned, taking a small step back. She waited for a few seconds, for any indication that Beast Boy was going to do as he had been told.

Nothing.

Silently, Raven wrapped the door in her dark aura, forcing it to move. The metallic locks buckled an groaned under the pressure, before ultimately giving out completely. Light flooded Beast Boy's room as the door slid open quietly, exposing the horrid mess that used to be his living quarters.

There were piles of rubbish absolutely everywhere. On the floor, on the bed, hanging from the ceiling.

How the hell did he manage that?

Raven cautiously took a step into the hazardous room, accidentally kicking something that had been lying on the ground. Looking down, Raven squinted through the still rather-darkness, trying to identify the object that she had just accidentally assaulted.

It was an empty carton of soy milk.

Resisting the overwhelming urge to vomit as she passed a pile of dirty laundry, Raven bravely trekked deeper into the abysmal chamber, passing more and more trash as she went. Try as she might, however, she could not seem to locate her teammate.

Maybe he was already dead, buried under one of the many piles of rubbish?

One thing was for certain.

If he was, Raven wasn't going to go dumpster diving through his room, just to find his decaying corpse.

Silkie could do that.

A small rustling sound interrupted Raven from her thoughts, instantly snapping her back to the present. The sound had come from the direction of the bed, rather deep into the room. Deeper than Raven was comfortable going.

But...she HAD promised Starfire that she would try to help Beast Boy...

Damn it.

Raven shuddered slightly, carefully picking herself a path through the rubbish. Using her powers, she managed to move much of the mess out of her way, though she did have to step over the occasional soy milk carton every now and again.

Reaching the bed, Raven took to examining the pile of garbage that had congregated over where the pillow would have lain. It was mostly dirty clothes, with leftover food and a few more cartons.

Where the hell did Beast Boy get all this milk?

Raven took a step away from the bed, slowly poking the vulgar pile of laundry and waste with a long stick, which she had come across rather randomly during her perilous journey through the room. It was probably one of the only things she had seen within the confines of the bedroom that wasn't utterly repulsive.

That is, until the pile of garbage seemingly exploded, coating the stick and the one wielding it in a thick layer of what was most likely stale soy milk.

Biting the inside of her cheek to stop herself screaming, Raven backed away from the bed hastily, almost falling over backwards into yet another large pile of dirty laundry. The sound of something exploding behind Raven caught the dark empath's attention; she hoped briefly that whatever it was, it wasn't Beast Boy.

Only briefly, though.

Holding her breath and counting mentally in an attempt to calm down, Raven stood up straight once again, making her way back towards the bed. She stopped, however, when she saw exactly what had made the rubbish explode in the first place.

Beast Boy.

How the hell did he even manage to get underneath that pile? Did he build it around himself?

Wait, that's not important.

Raven's eyes widened as she took in the green boy's appearance. His hair was matted and greasy, his chin sporting an impressive amount of stubble. Dark bags, almost completely black, hung beneath his eyes, which were incredibly bloodshot. He also looked skinny...er. His uniform was torn beyond repair, and Raven would have sworn that she could see Beast Boy's ribs outlined against his skin.

None of this, however, even came close to his smell.

Contrary to popular belief, Beast Boy actually smelled quite nice... a large majority of the time. Sure, every now and again he would forget to put on deodorant or brush his teeth, but otherwise he was generally good with personal hygiene. Raven could still remember a conversation that she had once accidentally overheard between the small, chromatically challenged boy and his bigger, half robotic surrogate brother, whilst they had been playing video games and she had been in the kitchen, out of sight. Beast Boy had told Cyborg about his need to be clean, as he felt it was one way to keep reminding himself that he was still human. After all, animals didn't generally care about how they smelled.

That didn't seem like the case now, however.

Raven almost gagged as she came closer to the bed, bringing her hand up to cover her nose quicker than ever before. Beast Boy merely glanced over at her, before reaching behind himself, pulling a carton of soy milk out of seemingly nowhere.

"What do you want, Rae?" He grumbled, slicing the top of the carton off with a single clawed finger.

"Beast Boy... what happened to you?" Raven gasped out, not even bothering to remove her hand from her face. No way she was risking breathing in the putrid air from this room anymore.

"Life happened, Rae." Beast Boy mumbled, taking a huge gulp of his soy milk.

"Beast Boy, look at what you're doing to yourself. You need to move on." Raven said nasally, starting to turn blue from lack of oxygen.

"I don't wanna move on, I wanna forget." Beast Boy said resolutely, accompanying his statement with a small hiccup.

Raven mentally sighed. Doing so out loud would require her to open her mouth, and that wasn't an option. As much as she didn't want to do this, she couldn't see herself having any other choice. Beast Boy helped her when she was stuck, so it was only fair that she would help him.

"Beast Boy, I know it's tough." Raven squeaked out, using more and more of her precious oxygen. "But you have to move on. I know you loved her, but maybe this is for the best."

"Huh?" Beast Boy grunted, searching around for another carton of soy milk. "Whadoya mean, loved her? I didn't love Madame Rouge, that'd just be creepy."

"Huh?" Raven grunted, doing a marvelous job of accidentally impersonating Beast Boy. "What do YOU mean? I was talking about Terra."

"What?" Beast Boy said, halting his aggressive searching to stare at Raven incredulously. "Why would I be sad about Terra? She tried to kill us, remember? And she was just a crush, thank you very much."

Beast Boy huffed and crossed his arms, completely ignoring the look of shock on Raven's face.

Raven spluttered away the last of her oxygen, staring at Beast Boy in shock. Seemingly forgetting the overwhelming dangers of such an action, Raven took a breathe, which instantly snapped her out of her state of utter disbelief.

"B-b-b-but!" Raven coughed out, resisting the urge to spit. "You...you should be sad about Terra...that's what's supposed to happen!"

Beast Boy raised an eyebrow at the girl, rolling his eyes as he spoke. "Rae, I tried. Terra's gone, I tried to make her stay. It was her choice, why should I be sad over that?"

"Then...then what are you sad about?" Raven asked, tilting her head to one side. She didn't like this, Beast Boy knowing something that she didn't. That sort of thing usually only happened when the planets were aligned or something.

Beast Boy heaved a sigh, unintentionally sending a large cloud of putrid air Raven's way. Literally. "You just don't get it, Rae. I'm not upset over Terra. I tried, I failed. Boo hoo. I'm sad about the Brotherhood of Evil."

Raven ducked underneath the undoubtedly toxic cloud that was heading straight for her face, before straightening up and giving Beast Boy a look that was filled with more confusion than he thought possible for someone to have. "What?"

"Rae, the Brotherhood of Evil were my arch-nemesis...es. With them gone, I have to pick a new one. And no offense to the villains around here, but that's just depressing."

"...Are you kidding me?" Raven asked, raising both eyebrows at the green boy. Beast Boy merely glared back, before pouting and turning away.

"Well, sorry Miss. 'My-Arch-Nemesis-Is-An-Interdimensional-Demon-That-Will-Probably-Never-Actually-Die-And-He-Also-Happens-To-Be-Pure-Evil-And-Is-My-Own-Dad-Because-Why-Not', I guess I shouldn't be sad because my evil scientist arch-nemesis is gone, especially when the next best thing around here is Control Freak. No, as a superhero I have it made!"

Raven opened her mouth to argue, but found that for once she couldn't actually think of a retort.

She could only admit, Beast Boy had a point.

And that scared her.

"Beast Boy..." Raven started, before her eyes lit up slightly. "I have an idea!"

"Huh?" Beast Boy mumbled, turning back to face Raven. "Go on."

"You just need to find a new arch-nemesis." Raven pointed out, crossing her arms casually.

"Rae, I just said-"

"I know." Raven replied, cutting him off. "But I'm not talking about finding one around here. Maybe you should try a different city?"

Beast Boy 'hmm'ed for a moment, before his eyes brightened. "You know Rae, that could work!"

"You can stop calling me Rae now-"

"Yeah yeah yeah, whatever." Beast Boy said excitedly, sitting up straighter. "What's a good city for finding criminals?"

"Uh," Raven started, slightly taken aback by his sudden mood swing. "I don't know, Gotham?"

"Perfect!" Beast Boy shouted. Looking around briefly, Beast Boy picked up the stick that Raven had forsaken earlier, before wading his way through the abundance of rubbish, over towards the window.

"Tell the others I'll be back soon!" He shouted over his shoulder at Raven, before hurling the stick at his window with all his might. The stick connected, shattering the glass and leaving quite a large hole. Beast Boy hastily transformed into a pigeon, taking a second to nod towards Raven before flying out of the window, and into the fresh air outside.

Raven stood stock still, staring at the now broken window with large eyes. She wasn't exactly sure how this sudden change of events would play out, though for some reason she was regretting ever leaving the ops center in the first place.

Something fell from Raven's hair, splattering down on to the ground below. Raven instinctively swiped a hand through her hair, only to feel something incredibly sticky. Withdrawing her hand, Raven stared down at it, rather confused.

It was covered in what looked like stale milk.

Raven grimaced. It could not possibly get any worse.

"Raven! Beast Boy! We heard glass shattering, are you two OK?"

Oops. Spoke too soon.

Raven turned slowly, feeling more of the stale soy milk sliding down her face. There, standing in the doorway and looking at her with wide eyes, was Robin, Cyborg and Starfire. Each had a look of mutual confusion, as they took in the Gothic girl before them.

She must have been quite the sight, standing in between mountains of rubbish, covered in stale milk with a broken window behind her and Beast Boy nowhere to be found.

Raven heaved a sigh, her face twisting into a sour scowl when the movement caused more milk to slide down her face, falling off at her chin and splattering all over her shoe.

This was going to be fun to explain.

**XxX**

So, my first one-shot in ages. This took me way too freakin' long to write. Something like 13 hours.

I've actually figured out why I can't seem to write these days, and no it isn't writers block. The ideas are still there, I'm just tired and I write too much as it is.

Let me put it this way: if you're a chef, and you spend all day cooking fancy meals for other people, when you get home you're not likely to fire up the oven and make yourself some nice tasting concoction with some annoying French name. No, you've cooked all bloody day, you can't be fucked doing it again. So, you just throw something in the microwave and call it dinner.

It's like that for me. I'm in my final year of highschool, and am writing something close to 15 pages every day. In other words, a fuck-load. I don't want to have to wake up early, walk a few kilometers (a couple of miles, whatever measurement system you use) to school, write all that, walk back, and write more. No, fuck that. I'm tired.

I still make an effort, but damn it's draining. So for anyone who reads my other stories, that's why. If you've never read any of my stories then you're probably sitting there just thinking "What the hell is this guy on about?" I apologise, but this little rant was necessary.

Anyways, I may continue this storyline. I haven't decided yet. I mean, if enough people request it, then I may have no choice. But that's up to the readers.

Also, the poll on my profile is still up, and in need of some votes! It has to do with one of my other stories, but not like I'll know if you're voting blind, now will I?

(Wrap this A/N up, you boring fuck!) Yeah, shut up I'm doing it.

Last thing, leave a review! If you want the story to continue beyond a one-shot, or if you just want to tell me how amazing I am, or even if you want to just flame me. I don't care. I love feedback, and flames are hilarious to read. That's not an invitation, by the way.

Sorry for the big-ass A/N, but sometimes it's necessary.

Peace!

_**X**_


End file.
